Throughout my childhood, I would experience many nightmares. I always wondered what triggered them, and a piece of mind would believe that it was from the house that me and my family moved into. It was a pretty old house, made around the 1960s, and it always haunted me throughout the night. I could barely sleep at times, and at my young age, (7 years old), I would often panic and my heartbeat would race. I’ve had all sorts of nightmares. Clowns, getting murdered, feeling trapped in a place, but this one dream was something that I didn’t expect. It was the usual Sunday night. Eating dinner, drinking some cold milk before bed, getting tucked in, the regular. I was anxious to go to sleep that night. It was dark, cold, and I felt all alone in my room as my parents talked in the room right across from the hallway. I drifted into a cold sleep after minutes of thinking.
I was awakened, but yet I wasn’t in my regular bed with my Mario sheets and cool pillow, instead, I was in the dark. At this point, I began to panic. Several footsteps were coming from several locations and I didn’t know where this figure was going to appear. Suddenly, the footsteps ended, and I was in complete silence. I turned to my right, and I could see a red, shadowy light and I couldn’t determine what kind of figure it was. The red eyes began to glow, and suddenly, I could see a dark figure, blending in with the darkness. My mind began to scramble, get me out of here… get me out of here, I began to say, hoping that maybe my mind could wake me up from this horrible nightmare, but yet, even with my pleading, I was still there. The face of the figure was completely dark, and all I could see were those red eyes. The mouth opened, and it began to smile, slowly and slowly, and as this was going on, I was panting and screaming, hoping that it would end, but it didn’t. A ringing in my ears began to happen, and I could see a strange static that began to plague my eyesight. What could this be? I thought. A monster? A demon? I prayed every night before I went to bed, so why is this happening to me? The figure was in a straight position, its head was tilted to the left, and I saw the following numbers that started to glow on its forehead, 666. It was then when I realized that I was making eye contact with a demon.
“Jack.” this strange entity said. I looked at them in horror, their voice was mine? How could that be? It was my voice, but deeper and raspier.
It was like my throat was closed shut. I couldn’t say a single word to this entity, because I was genuinely fearing for my life, even though I was in this dream state. Why is this happening to me? I thought. It just said my name..
The small hairs on my little 7 year old arms began to lift up, as my entire body emerged in goosebumps.
Suddenly, I began to levitate, I could barely move my body at all as this was happening. The only words that I could mutter from my throat was, “Stop.” But yet, it wouldn’t. It felt like my soul was getting sucked out of my body, as if it was being taken away from me.. My vision started to go black, and all I could hear were my own screams and the sound of ringing as this demon was taking my soul.
It was pitch black, and suddenly, I woke up from the dream. It was morning, and I could hear my mother’s footsteps as she approached my room.
“Jack, you have school today, get out of bed,” she said. I didn’t respond. The dream had terrified me so much to the point that I couldn’t even get out of my bed. It took me a couple of minutes before I could leave the cold bed that I was in during that night. I did my morning routine, but everything felt odd. It was a feeling that I couldn’t explain, and I knew that it had something to do with that dream. As I was taking off my pajamas and my sonic shirt, I realized that an aching pain was coming from the left side of my belly. I couldn’t get a look because it was too far to the left, so I decided to go up to my mirror to inspect what was causing this aching pain. But when I looked at that mirror, it was like my entire body had gone numb. A strange bruise had appeared on my belly.